


Let the Stars Light My Path

by one_more_offbeat_anthem



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Mechanic Dean Winchester, New Year's Eve, Photographer Castiel (Supernatural), idiots to lovers (because isn't that the real destiel dynamic?)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28453614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_more_offbeat_anthem/pseuds/one_more_offbeat_anthem
Summary: Dean had plans for midnight, plans that involved Cas. He had decided (foolishly) to make his first New Year’s resolution to finally tell Cas how he felt, how he’d felt for years. Cas hadn’t made it easy--he was a photographer, and, over the past few days, he’d been going from engagement shoot to engagement shoot. And talking about them.Dean was pretty sure that, if he heard about another person being engaged, he was gonna punch a wall.(or, the one where Dean and Cas are a couple of dumbasses in love, and it just so happens to be New Year's Eve.)
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 117





	Let the Stars Light My Path

**Author's Note:**

> _Of course_ I had to write something cute to finish out 2020 :) it's been a great time to be in fandom, even if things have been absolutely cuckoo-bananas. I hope everyone has a delightful 2021! 
> 
> Kudos to my lovely beta, jo.cann (who also beta'd a story I have coming up in a handful of weeks, but you'll have to wait and see about that!)
> 
> As always, extra props goes to the Profound Bond discord server. If you're 18+, [join us!](https://discord.gg/profoundbond) we're good fun :)
> 
> And if you like this, I post more stuff here sometimes and also on [my tumblr](https://one-more-offbeat-anthem.tumblr.com) :)

Yesterday, a few days ago even, the New Year’s Eve party at Jo's had seemed like a good idea. It was going to be nice to see all of their friends, Cas had the night off, and they lived close enough to walk back to their apartment if they got trashed. 

Emphasis on  _ seemed _ .

Dean was at the party now, and objectively, it wasn’t a bad time. The whole gang was together--Jo, Charlie, Benny, Ash, Meg, even Sam and Eileen had managed to make it. There were also other assorted friends--Jo had a habit of inviting everyone she knew to functions, so her friends from work, her yoga studio, and her and Charlie’s LARP group were here, too. In short, the apartment was crammed, he had lost track of Cas almost immediately, and it was nearing midnight.

This was bad because Dean had  _ plans  _ for midnight, plans that involved Cas. He had decided (foolishly) to make his first New Year’s resolution to finally tell Cas how he felt, how he’d felt for years. Cas hadn’t made it easy--he was a photographer, and, over the past few days, he’d been going from engagement shoot to engagement shoot. And talking about them. 

Dean was pretty sure that, if he heard about another person being engaged, he was gonna punch a wall. 

He checked his phone and tightened his grip on his latest bottle (number four) of beer. 11:58. If he was really going to cowboy up and do this, he needed to find Cas, and fast. 

Dean rounded the corner into Jo’s hallway and froze. He’d found Cas, that was for sure. Cas was up against the wall, talking to Meg, who was standing in front of him, and there wasn’t a lot of space between the two of them. She leaned in to whisper something in his ear, and he laughed. Then she grabbed his wrist and tugged him down the hallway towards the living room, where the lead-up to the Times Square ball drop was on the television, and Dean tried to turn away, but Meg had caught his eye. 

“Hey, Dean-o,” she said, waving at him with her free hand, “Ready for the ball drop? Aiming for a New Year’s kiss?”

“I--I have to go,” Dean said, like a fucking coward, “Forgot something.”   


“It’s almost midnight!” she said, and Cas’ eyebrows shot up. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. 

Dean left. 

His plans had been thwarted by _Meg,_ who _had_ to know how he felt--when Dean had gotten spectacularly drunk a few months ago and told Jo that he liked--no, that he was _in_ _love_ _with_ Cas, Jo had said it was _obvious_.

Dean sat down on the front stoop of Jo’s apartment building and looked at his phone as it switched to midnight and a new year, his chest twisting at the thought of Meg and Cas kissing in Jo’s living room. There would be another round of drinks, of course, and then there was an essential question--would they spend the night together? Would they do it at Meg’s place, or come back to Dean and Cas’ apartment, or…?

Dean pulled himself off the stoop and began the walk home. He should have known, he should have stopped fooling himself--he was nobody’s first choice. Cas was successful, and eventually he would want to move out of the dump of an apartment that they lived in. Meg was an assistant manager at the bank she worked at. Dean was...a mechanic? Yeah, that’s what he was--a mechanic who drank too much beer, listened to too much classic rock, had too many issues to be good for Cas. His best friend deserved someone who could treat him well.

Cas didn’t deserve him, and he sure as hell didn’t deserve Cas. 

“I know I’ve said this before, but I hate all the light pollution here. Makes it hard to see the stars,” a deep, familiar voice said next to him, and Dean turned his head to see Cas walking beside him, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets. Cas was looking up at the sky, the streetlights casting a pleasant glow on his features. 

“The street’s probably the least interesting place to be tonight,” Dean replied after a long pause. 

“Which made me wonder,” now Cas looked at him, caught Dean in his electric blue gaze, “Why you, the person who told Jo we would come, left the party early. Right before midnight, in fact.” 

“Just didn’t want to be there anymore.” Dean kicked a crunched-up soda can that had been left on the sidewalk. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem so fine to me.” But Cas didn’t press anymore, just kept walking next to Dean, down the familiar path to their shared apartment. 

Dean let the silence linger between them, before saying, “Have you ever been in love, Cas?”

Cas looked down at their feet, “Yeah.”

“How’d that go?”

“It’s going...okay.” Cas let out a sigh. They’d made it to their apartment building, and Cas dropped onto their front steps, patting the space next to him. Dean sat down.

“Only okay?”

Cas fidgeted, twisting his fingers together. “Well, it doesn’t feel...good to see the person you love hurting.”

“Right.” Dean swallowed. He wondered who Cas could care about that much.

“Will you tell me?” Cas turned his head, “Why you left the party, really?”

Dean let his gaze rove over Cas--dark, messy hair, brilliant blue gaze, his dark grey sweater with the white-collared shirt underneath, and let out a long, slow breath. “I left because of you.”

Cas’s brow furrowed. “Why would you do that?”

“Meg.”

Cas frowned further, and then let out a laugh. It was sharp, mirthless. “Wait, Meg? What about--”

“She was taking you to see the ball drop!”

“She was--no,” Cas tilted his head in that way he always did. “She was taking me to see you.”

“Wait…” Dean stared at Cas. “What?”

“She...was trying to encourage me to do something, but then you left, so I left.”

“Will you tell me what that something was?” Dean asked, although a small spark of hope was blooming in his chest. He didn’t always trust his instincts, but now…

Cas was looking back at him, his gaze wide, open, considering, like he was thinking over a risk to take. Dean wanted nothing more than to reach his own hands up and guide Cas’ face towards his own, but he also valued their friendship more than he cared to admit. Cas was always there, whenever Dean needed him, even in the smallest ways, and if this  _ wasn’t  _ what Cas wanted, then Dean was willing to keep himself under wraps, New Year’s resolution or not.

It was one thing to kiss your best friend at midnight, in the midst of a party full of drunken people.

It was another, here on the front stoop of their building, with the stars (or what could be seen of them in spite of the streetlights) above them, with Dean’s fingers slowly freezing. 

Cas pulled his gaze away from Dean and turned it skyward, but Dean kept looking at Cas’ profile as Cas lifted up an arm and traced the constellations. Cas had once said that, if he hadn’t been a photographer, he would have liked to be an astronomer.  _ I just wasn’t that good at math,  _ Cas had said,  _ And I enjoy taking pictures. _

“Did you know,” Cas said, “That some used to consider the stars the final resting place of gods?”

“Well, now I do.” Dean wasn’t sure what conversation they were having anymore.

“It’s a nice thought,” Cas continued, “To be remembered.”

“You ever gonna tell me what you were doing?” Dean asked. It was his turn to be persistent with questions now.

“No.” 

Dean felt his heart fall, but before he could say anything else, Cas had turned his gaze back to Dean, had pulled him close by the back of his neck, with his other palm on Dean’s jaw.

“I’m going to show you,” Cas whispered, his breath warm on Dean’s lips, and Dean unconsciously closed the distance. It was both nothing and everything like he’d spent years imagining--he’d expected Cas, lover of small animals, astronomy, and herbal tea, to be gentle, and he  _ was,  _ but he also took from the kiss, working his jaw to get what he wanted out of it. 

Dean wasn’t sure how long it had been before they broke apart, but when they did, he found himself laughing. “I guess we’re both a couple of dumbasses, huh?”

Cas shrugged, let his hand that had been palming Dean’s cheek run down Dean’s arm to take his hand. “Maybe. But it’s all worked out.” 

(Their first date was to the planetarium in the next town over, so that Cas could see the stars--and Dean could look at his.)


End file.
